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The living evidence base for romance scam research

Find the studies, inspect the evidence, understand what is known, and see the questions that still need answers.

We do not host documents. All items link to publisher or repository pages.

Research corpus at a glance

Approved publications
216
Living syntheses
10
Quality-cleared synopses
214
Corpus updated

How RSRC Uses AI

AI helps RSRC organize and summarize research. Outputs may contain errors; verify findings in the linked original source.

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Explore the research

Search approved publications by title, author, DOI, topic, year, or research method.

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See what the evidence says

Read living syntheses that connect findings across publications and identify uncertainties and research gaps.

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Research Insights

Synthesis and analysis across the corpus

Corpus-level findings that connect evidence across multiple publications and make uncertainties and research gaps visible.

Living Evidence Synthesis

Attack Methods and Offender Strategies

Attack Methods and Offender Strategies: How Romance-Based Offenders Identify, Approach, Groom, Deceive, and Exploit Targets

Across the reviewed evidence, relationship-based online frauds follow a recurring multi-stage progression: scammers create attractive or fabricated profiles to initiate contact, use sustained grooming and tailored interaction to build trust, deploy small compliance probes to test...

Publications:
30
Evidence statements:
339
Read the living evidence synthesis
Living Evidence Synthesis

Prevention and Intervention

Prevention and Intervention for Romance-Related Online Scams: Evidence Synthesis

This synthesis summarizes reviewed empirical, qualitative, review, and practice-focused records addressing prevention and intervention for romance-related online scams (including pig-butchering/crypto-enabled variants). The corpus supports a multi-component prevention approach: (...

Publications:
61
Evidence statements:
242
Read the living evidence synthesis

Research Library

Recently curated publications

Individual studies and reports recently added to the approved collection.

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Online love fraud and the experiences of indonesian women: a qualitative study

This publication presents a qualitative, phenomenological examination of Indonesian women who experienced online love fraud. It aims to illuminate the psychosocial impact of such scams on victims, focusing on how decepti...

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Drug mule for love

This publication presents a detailed case study of a romance scam victim who was unknowingly used as a drug mule. Its stated purpose is to deepen understanding of the stages involved in such cases and to compare this ins...

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LOVE SCAMS ISSUES IN MALAYSIA: HOW TO OVERCOME IT FROM AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

The publication examines love scams in Malaysia and evaluates potential remedies from an Islamic perspective. Its stated aim is to identify factors driving the phenomenon, the impacts on victims and families, and Islamic...

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‘Should’ve known better’: Using Lerner’s Belief in a Just World to understand ho...

This article investigates how Lerner’s Belief in a Just World (BJW) helps explain how professionals within the Fraud Justice Network (FJN) perceive victims of online romance and investment fraud. Drawing on qualitative i...

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Lovextortion: Persuasion strategies in romance cybercrime

This publication analyzes online romance scams, focusing on how persuaders cultivate trust and elicit financial compliance from victims. The study uses a corpus of authentic English-language messages and template texts f...

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Essays on the Rationality of Online Romance Scammers

This dissertation examines online romance scams through a multi-study approach to understand how and why offenders act the way they do in the digital dating arena. The author sets out to map the current literature, test...

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Catching the catfish: Exploring gender and the Dark Tetrad of personality as pre...

This study examines whether gender and the Dark Tetrad of personality (psychopathy, sadism, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) predict catfishing perpetration, a form of online deception. Framed by an evolutionary cheater...

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About RSRC

Built to make romance scam research usable

Founded by LD Herrera, PhD, RSRC organizes romance scam scholarship into a searchable public library and living evidence syntheses for researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and the public.

Learn about RSRC and its founder